???:

After a couple moments of what must have been intense inner-thought, the girl relaxed her stone-like stature and let out a short "Ahhh." before quickly moving up close to the pair, bringing a bit of dirt from the garden with her as she returned to the pavement leading to the Mechanic's.

"Sent by Miss Grey, huh?" for about half a minute, the girl stood in front of the pair, inspecting them top from bottom. Once satisfied with the frontal look, she made a short circle around them before stopping in front of them once again and continuing.

"Then yer th' "outsiders" that were gonna be brought 'ere t'day. Not all of 'em, I'd hope."

Making a short turn and a sleight shoulder roll to adjust the worn-down brown overalls which must have been at least a size too big, the girl walked back towards the entrance of the shop, and turned her head once she had taken a step inside.

"Well? C'mon in." her deep brown eyes reflected what must have been a furnace within before becoming a sleight glare. "Try not t' break th' door any more than y' already 'ave when y'close it behind ye, yeah?"

With that, she walked further into the shop, rounding a corner shortly before reaching what must have been the counter for the establishment.

Tifa:

Tifa stared wordlessly at the area around her, and not because her vocal systems had burnt out because of the tremendous heat of the place. The walls within the entrance were completely stacked with weaponry. Blades and guns of all sizes and shapes littered the small space, making one wonder how much must have been in the working area.

One semi-loud crash later, that wondering was answered as the young girl walked through a small curtain behind the front counter rubbing her head, which seemed to have gained a bump of some sort. A short analysis from Tifa led her to conclude that she had hit her head on something (as if that wasn't obvious), and returned to her apparent duty as an overly glorified camera as she scanned the area.

The entrance was ~4m x 6m in size, with the ceiling rising to about 3m. With all the weapons, however, the room seemed no larger than 2m x 6m, with its length only staying the same because weapons weren't littered across the floors and back wall. Well. Not many weapons. On the left side when facing the Front Desk (which was seemingly the only thing not burdened by several tons of metal and other materials laying atop it, located in the back of the room) was a curtained door-frame -- much like the one behind the front desk. The reasoning for having a curtain rather than a door was probably to:

1. Avoid doors winging and knocking things over, and
2. For better air circulation. Because clearly the burning air within the entrance alone would be unbearable if it was also amassed in any subsequent rooms.

Heat and weapons aside, the place seemed quite well maintained. There was no dust on any of the surfaces, and from what little of the walls could be seen, it was relatively free of gashes, keeping to its deep brown color, with its ceiling in a deep velvet. Perhaps it was newly built? That, or there was some mechanism in place to stop any form of deterioration...

Or perhaps the lack of marks was due to the fact that any surface was protected by a thick coating of pure weaponry.

Tifa returned her attention to the girl in front as she made a loud *Ahem* towards the pair.

~~~

???:

While continuing to rub the still-reddening mark on her head, the young girl pressed a couple buttons located a bit lower than the edge of the counter with practiced ease. As a result, the walls seemingly folded within themselves, forming "shelves", which would be more accurately described as Slots. Small tags on the weapons which littered the ground glowed directly after, seemingly categorized by weapon-type, weight, and size, and shifted towards the slots in the wall, lining up and seemingly being sucked into the openings, only to be brought back out moments later within sheaths, and stacked neatly on top of each other, as if each slot was an independent row of linked bullets, but with swords, guns, and bombs instead of ammunition. The sheaths of the swords faced outwards, pointing upwards at a slant, as if to allow an easy pull-out-and-test if needed, and the stocks of the many guns within the room were arranged in a similar fashion.

Within a minute, the room was no longer a mess of weapons scattered about, but rather a very organized weapons cache. After the organization completed, the lights on the weaponry (which presumably signaled that whatever force pulled the weapons into their respective holding-areas was Active) faded, and only the burning heat of the room was left as a mild discomfort.

"Welcome to The House of Iron, th' best Smithy's 'n Mechanical Repair business in all of Northaven."

As if she had said these lines since she was only old enough to walk, the young lady behind the desk pressed a couple more buttons on the keyboard in front of her, and activated Air Conditioning within the shop. Its affects were instantaneous, and a pleasant cool breeze seeped out of the mechanisms on the ridges of the ceiling as they cooled down the building.

"Th' name's Nina. My Pops 's away at the moment, so I'm actin' as the head Mechanic here fer th' time bein'," seemingly done with inputting commands into the keyboard, Nina grabbed the neck of her slim white Tank-Top, and waved it in front of her to let the cool air get to her better. She then sleightly adjusted the clips of her overalls, and continued.

"Y'll have to 'scuse the heat. S'better for weapons to be forged in higher temperatures, so I d'nt usually cool th' place down 'less I'm finished."

Moving what must have been an extremely high chair (as to elevate Nina's upper half above the counter), the girl sat down and gave another well practiced line.

"So, what'll it be for ye?"

Noel read the note once over, then twice over. Somebody knew who he was, and as Noel tapped the side of the night stand, he pondered. The only inconsistency the note held was...well, best not get into that. More important stuff anyhow.

This character also knew Noel's methods of reaching this place, which was a little bit more than disturbing. And yet, the possibility someone knew what happened to him in the lab that day the experiment was trashed, or where Tinkinzar had fled off to...it was the first lead he had in several months, the last one being where to find the Unknown Passage.

He ran a hand through his bond hair, stood up, and wrapped the sheet of the bed around his body. Walking around like a nudist in a classy place like this would be unappreciated, or at the very least, be an inappropriate sight. He tied it in the fashion old Owlite philosophers used to do when in their forums and colleges. He grabbed a cord from the curtains, and wrapped it around his waist, binding it tightly.

He finally dropped to the floor, reaching under the bed, and grasping an Alchemy Staff. It seemed to fit him perfectly.

A simple 6.5' steel pipe. However, the holes placed neatly along the staff were perfect for inserting vials for inflicting status effects.

Getting back up and tucking his golden hair behind one ear, he walks towards the door, opening it and walking out to see who would be waiting for him.

"I think we are done here, Get the Cylinder and make some friends," Boan rise up and headed for the armory, he walked past Sona for a brief moment and whispered into her ear, "I will wait for you out side the armory once you are done thinking up some strategies and get geared up, just don't expect me to follow them all through... I have as much care for the content in that canister as I have towards this pseudo-haven of hers."

Nina:

After scribbling some notes onto a notepad, which must have been sitting next to the keyboard, Nina stood from her high-seat and walked to the side of the counter, initiating an automatic response, and making a slightly slimmer piece of the platform move into the rest of the counter (like a pseudo-automatic-door). She then walked up to Tifa, rested her hands on her hips, and examined the robot closely.

"Hm... A basic disassembly n' repair job, then? Well. Basic plus the possibility a' total destruction followed by death 'course." She then raised to her full height (which was not much greater than her examining-height) and added, "You outsiders sure love ta keep things interestin', don'tcha?"

She then turned on the heel of her left foot and headed over to the curtains on the left of the room.

"Well. I've handled delicate things a'fore. As for the weapon... Lances ain't the usual pick, so we keep 'em in here on rotation." She then made a small circle with her index, and explained. "That whole weapon-slottin' thing you saw me do puts 'em into slots, then a large belt moves 'em in and out o' this room." Stopping at the semi-empty door-frame, Nina stopped and turned to the pair.

"The other side's stuff is moved to the back. I invented that, jus' so ya know." She then walked into the room and, without waiting for the pair to follow, continued. Her voice echoed against the walls, so at least it wasn't tremendously difficult to hear the little girl continue with her explanation.

"The Lances'd be in 'ere, and normally I'd shuffle 'em out for you, but th' Lady-Bot'll be repaired in here anyways, s'you might as well join us fer now. I've got more questions to ask about 'er anyways."

~~~

Tifa:

Tifa continued listening as plans for her repairs took place. If it had an equivalent to a normal conversation, it would most likely be a Parent telling the hairdresser how their child would like their hair done -- without consulting the child, of course. While Tifa had no records of hair-stylization, she did gain such a feeling, and promptly indexed it with a full description of her surroundings.

While she did not disagree with any of the options Teach had selected... She did wonder why it is that he wanted to strip down her shellform's head himself. Surely the young mechanic could do that as well -- so long as she was actually a mechanic and not just the Mechanic's young upstart child who was eager to jump headfirst into a job she was not prepared for, that is.

Still, she wouldn't voice her opinion until it presented an issue. She could only hope that if it did become an issue, her vocal capabilities would still be functioning. For now, however, she simply waited for Teach to move into the other room.

Tifa:

Once Teach moved into the next room, Tifa gained a whole new set of items to inspect, catalog, and address lying in wait. As well as the inspection of the room, this would take her quite a great deal of time...

The room was larger than the entrance, it seemed about the same in width, with weapons making an "L" out of the back corner (the wall which would connect with the front of the building), and along the wall afterwards spanning for about 12m afterwards was a variety of different tool-tables, Furnaces, Forges, Anvils, and other such things for the art of weapon crafting, and mechanical repairs. The room itself was probably ~ 5m x 15m, with the same height as the entrance. Oddly enough, on the right side (The side connected to the Entrance Room) there was a set of 2 curtain-doors. 3, if you'd include the one that Tifa and Teach had just walked through.

The first was only a couple meters away from the previously-mentioned door, and probably led to a small space behind the front desk. The use for this room was, as Tifa hypothesized, for changing, preparing completed weapons for ease of access, and perhaps other such people-managing perposes.
The other door on the right side was waaaaay down the room, probably only a meter away from the furthest wall of the building. Unlike the other doors within the building, this one was very much the same as the large wooden door which was at the front.

This led Tifa to believe that it led outside. The door was probably in place to protect against intruders, and to keep heat inside -- as the apprentice mechanic had said that higher temperatures yielded better weapons. If it was simply a bunch of curtains like the inside-doors, the heat would be lost.

Aside from the doors, there was another oddity in the room. About halfway down -- no, exactly halfway down the room was a large circular groove in the walls on both sides. To the right, it simply connected with the room behind the desk. But to the right, the wall was noticable hollowed out. It was literally a Dome cut-out, with walls installed on the outside. In the middle of the circle was a medium-sized table, and from under that table, small grooves lined the floor along its entire length, turning and twisting to the locations of many other tools within the room. It was as if that table was rigged up through the entire room... Quite mysterious.

Aster finishing a detailed log of hypotheses and room-dimensions, Tifa focused her attention on Nina, who had approached the pair.

~~~

Nina:

Without even asking, Nina bumped Teach sleightly to the side and took Tifa's Wheelchair-handles, moving her quickly down the long room, and over to the medium-sized, heavily plated table within the middle of the room.

"Jeez yer heavy... I mean... I'm used t' it 'cause I've gotta make all matter o' weapons -- heavy or light, but without this wheelchair, you'd be a right pain in the backside to lug around." Wiping a drop of sweat from her forehead, Nina quickly added, "No offence."

She then pressed a couple of buttons attached to the side of the table, and watched as the table shifted and calibrated itself to a slanted position for Tifa to simply hop onto. Which, after a moment of inspection and supposed archiving, she did.

"Excellent. So. Seein' as yer able to move somewhat I can assume you're not broken, eh?" With a couple more button presses, the table moved back to its normal position with Tifa lying atop it. Nina's button presses also caused a mechanical-looking chair, connected to the table, to unfold. She promptly sat upon the chair, and continued tapping away.

"So, what's the time yer lookin' for completion in Mr...?" Nina looked over at Teach expectantly while continuing to hammer away at the keyboard with precision that would put pro-hacker's keystrokes to shame.

Nina:

"Well then, Mr. Fluffersworth... A rush job's gonna cost extra. And jus' so ya know... While Ms. Grey is the master of the city, money's money. S'you'll have to get a note a' some sort a'fore I can get anythin' done." Pausing from her typing, Nina stretched her arms backward and rested one of her feet on top of the mysterious table.

"After all, y'could jus' be an outsider who wandered in, and used Ms. Grey's name like a magic word." waving her hands in the air as if casting a spell of some sort for effect, Nina got back to tapping on the keyboard.

"Fer now... I'll do a scan -- 's complimentary, after all. And in th' case o' the Lance..." With a couple swipes at the keyboard's rightmost side, the wall shuffled its weapons, revealing a couple lines of lances. None of them were extremely big, however. Mainly the slim kinds used for pure piercing force -- those that a Cavalryman would fine high-quality, but for Teach's description, offered little.

"These're what we've got." With a mischievous smile, Nina turned her head to Teach while continuing to type, the table glowing faintly with every press.

"Unless, of course... You'd be willin' to add a couple more 0's t'yer bill." A couple button presses later, the lights in the room seemed to dim for effect as the lines along the ground -- those connected to the table glowed faintly red, and the table under Tifa split into four, using an unknown force to keep Tifa's arms and legs propped against each of the four pieces. The four pieces then folded within themselves and made cylinders around Tifa's limbs, before glowing brightly for a moment. They then moved around Tifa and formed a "coat" of sorts, glowing once again, then reforming the table under Tifa.

"Aaaaaaand done." A small printout of what appeared to be a Blueprint combined with a Bill filtered through the table and over the keyboard, where it was tugged out by the over-energetic mechanic.

With a sharp whistle noise, the girl pointed towards Teach. "Y'mentioned a creator earlier, Mr. Fluffersworth. Next time ya see 'em, tell 'im 'e's got my respect." displaying just one piece of the handful, Nina continued looking at the other printouts. "S' not erry day y'see someone pull off a complex mechanism like this... Dark Matter inlays... Nuclear dispersion chambers... Even some Form Change, I'd reckon..."

Folding the papers back into her lap Nina looked back at Tifa.

"Well then. Who should I give these to?" with a jab of the papers, Nina points at Teach. "Mr. Fluffersworth? Or maybe..." the young girl turned to the robot, which lay upon the table quietly. "You'd like 'em yourself?"

Sona thoroughly enjoyed the meal, and while it wasn't the best she had ever had, it was a lot better than rations and prison food. Sona noticed that while eating, Max and Solomon didn't even glance at Lady Grey. Odd.

Grisham broke the silence, saying, "So. Your mission is at Midhaven. How do you plan on getting there safely?"

Sona replied, "I'm not too sure. I would need some more information on what exactly we have and what the main troubles we would face."

Boan was rather annoyed by Fos's unfounded empathy, "does that alchemist really want us dead? Or worse, join the rank and files of Max, Solomon and Astran?" Boan thought to himself as he whipped his greasy mouth, "she is better off as a vegetable than a moving plotting schemer... at least that way she won't has much control."

"Rooms upon rooms..." Teach whispers to himself as he carts TIFA into the next room.

Noel sighed, and conceded to bowing to the maid. "I'd like to know where I can find the latest group to enter the castle." He paused, and looked up at her for more.
"I'm not here to cause an uproar, I'm actually here to help. I heard they were heading out." Noel stared at the ground, "If I could be lead to them, or consult the master of the establishment, that would be appreciated." He grips the staff tighter, ready if she seemed off. His gold hair covered his shifting eyes, registering the movements of shadows and the light through the window.

As he walked beside her, she spoke up, "The name given to Your Humble Servant is Konami. Master is currently in the central tower of Northaven Castle, and the bedroom is on the second-to-top floor. Master Ragnor hired Your Humble Servant to serve Your Lordship, but it's Lady Grey who is the Mistress in these parts. Master Ragnor and Her Ladyship are currently allies. If Master permits, Your Humble Servant shall take Him to meet Lady Grey, the Right Honorable Mistress of Northaven."

He noticed as her gaze wandered, and half-smiled out of amusement. But what she said had caught him off guard.

"Wait, Lady Grey? Why is that familiar..." he grimaced, but reverted back to humoring Konami.

"The group may be more important than Ragnor, but if it's that important, he may find me. But..." he monologued, looking away for a moment. "Ragnor may know something about me. I'll have to see him first."

He looked back to Konami, who seemed quite reserved towards a boy with as much skin showing as he did, and spoke, "Would you instead take me to Ragnor? I'd like to know why he recognized me like he did."

This Ragnor character may have been involved in the experiment, or seen him from another temporal shenanigan. Or maybe he was getting info from Lady Grey...

The course was set, Ragnor first, Lady second, and the group third. Fate, or Konami's hustle, would allow him the time for each.

But the girl looked uneasy, and Noel spoke to her half-smiling, "So, how is it that Haven gets divided into so many parts?"

"Nothing much, Grisham," Boan replied at Lady Grey's seemingly most trusted servant when he displayed concerns, "Do you really think it is okay for that blood alchemist just run off to try restore Lady Grey to her former glory? Judging the apathy he displayed so far, I wouldn't put much stock on him fixing up anything, for all we know, he could turn her into a mindless abomination and that is the last thing I want."

Boan then tabs his hands together in a scheming manner, "As far as the attack on Midhaven goes, damn..." Boan paused momentarily, "So that is what they called it now days... so the idea of popping out of Ozlo's back yard with his pants down sounds all too risky, but then again, getting eaten alive by creatures in the dark or the teeth of gun fire are just as bad. If this is meant to be a tunnel breach, then I requisite some combat shovels in case of a tunnel collapse, breach charges and additional dynamites to help us assault and withdraw while sealing off the tunnel for good."

Topo tried to pull away from the person holding his shoulder, and fail.

"I'm not your slave. You don't tell me what to do!" Topo hisses, as Grisham pulls him away.

Nina:

As the young girl led the pair outside of the building, a fresh breeze blew through a lone tree and the hair of those with mobile follicles. It was probably about two times the size of the entrance (8m x 12m), and in its center was a tall, but moderately thin tree whose branches swayed with the sudden breeze. Its appearance was similar to this.
It was peculiar, however, that the only actual "ground" in the area was a circle of dirt only a small bit wider than the tree itself, as to support said tree. The rest was of the ground was covered in stone-like sand, with metal plating making up a circular path around the tree, and branching out along the edges of the yard... Only to end abruptly as they came against the fences of the garden's neighbors. Each pathway had the width for two people to walk next to each other without any anyone having a foot in the grass. Or in this case, sand.
Certain points along the plating-path had circular cut-outs of variable sizes. Some were more ovular, with enough length for a person to simply lay atop it and still be within its boundaries. Others were only wide enough for a person standing upright to stay within its imaginary-boundaries. Each cut-out had a lid (which looked like a circle divided along its diameter) filling what was below... If anything was below, that is. Designer's detail or unknown-function, the plating was perfectly flat despite the odd circles and ovals.

Nina continued walking along the path over to a shed on the rightmost side of the "garden" and entered it, popping her head out from between the large wooden door and the doorframe after a moment to say "Jus' a moment, then."
The shed seemed quite small, probably only enough space to fit two people inside of it at a time -- and that's with it being cramped. A large reflective window was on the side facing Tifa and Teach, and didn't let anything information of what was going on inside reach the pair. It was either a one-way mirror, or just another designer's detail.

One moment of odd mechanical noises erupting from the shed later, Nina walked out of the large wooden shack with a steel lance far larger than herself over her shoulder.
[[For the sake of time, I'll just say it looks something like this, but with an end more similar to those found on this.]]
Surprisingly, the girl wasn't hindered by the weight of the lance in the least, and even held it out with one hand for Teach to get a quick feeling for it.

"This is one o' the weapons my Pops made. It's light when it's outta combat, n' becomes 'eavy when y'thrust or swing it. It detects th' sudden force n' transforms its inner-pieces accordin'ly. More weight, more momentum -- but in th' right locations o' the Lance s'that you ain't blown off yer feet b'cause o' it." Nina explained as she continued to hold out the giant lance. She then put her free hand to her chin in contemplation and looked up at the clouds as she continued.

"Pa told me how it worked once... But... Tha' was a long time ago. S'mthin' ta do with Alchemy or Magic workin' with Mechanical-stuff." with a shrug, Nina let out a short sigh before continuing. "Pops is waaaaaay better than me when it comes t'making things like this... Y'won't be disappointed with this weapon. Well, once y'bring the money t'take it outta the shop, that is."

~~~

EDIT: from Fri, 04/24/2015 - 13:22
Added in more details n' stuff.

My writing quality? 4
The story so far? 2
The central NPCs? 4
The supporting NPCs? 3
Your importance to the story? 3
The clarity of the game world? 2
The other player characters? 4
Yourself? 2

Just from a standpoint. I'd suggest waiting for other ratings before taking them to mind.

I wouldn't mind another RP on the forum. This story is good, I just feel others writing is being limited by their connections to their character being too weak, where I might fall under.

However, others ratings should weigh in on how you view my opinion afterwards. I may be coming from a focal point of bias due to my character currently being separated(though I acknowledge they are being integrated) from the storyline.

I dunno, I don't see why female characters have to be limited, or why the gender matters...

And by inconsistencies, you mean? xD? I also just don't know the overall layout of the place at all. If I've been switching tenses, my bad, I'm used to writing in present tense. Orrr inconsistent breaks of dialogue because I don't know where to actually break or meld dialogue...

((I don't want to give my oppion just yet. I want to wait till I can get more information from the story. Its a nice blind of just enough information, but at the same time too little information. I am just want to wait and see when I get a little more information is all.)

@Thin's writing quality: 4
I'd give you a five, but you have yet to give me chills down my spine while reading. Time will tell if you can achieve such a feat. For now, you're a good writer by my books.

The story so far: 3
We haven't really started, so... What rating do you expect beyond a "meh."
In the future, this rating will probably increase, because I can tell something great is cooking... Or... Has the possibility of being cooked up; it could also end very badly. Only time will tell.

The central NPCs: 3
Haven't learned much about them beyond small sightings of their personalities (such as the reactions towards the Sona x Soloman duel from both Soloman and Max). To be completely honest, however, I don't exactly like the term NPC -- not because the term can't be used accurately in some RP's... But because it can't be used very easily in this RP.
@Thin, you said that every person in this world is some part of it, right? That means that if we took the time to do so, you'd have to make detailed character bios on everyone in the world. You are technically a "player" as much as we are -- albeit one with much more control in plot development, but a player nonetheless. Because of this... I don't think there are any real NPC's in Condemned.

Still, I know what you mean by the term, and so I refer to my original argument and rating: 3.

The supporting NPCs: 3
Almost exactly the same argument as the previous rating. These ones aren't fleshed out as much to allow story progression, but as a result they seem sort of like puppets at this point -- they're just there. That is probably due to our characters not making them any more than that, however.

At least they react n' stuff... So 3.

"My" importance to the story: 3 / 4
I put quotations around "My" because I firmly believe "I" -- the person out of the computer typing all of this out -- isn't important towards this storyline at all. The characters, on the other hand, are important. That's probably what you meant, though.
For now, Tifa isn't extremely important, and I'm not sure how much potential she has, to be completely honest. She can be a part of an extremely complex sideline story that's taking place with Condemned, but her importance with the story has yet to be fully explored. For now, 3, because random details are better than nothing.
Nina is probably someone I|'m thinking too much into, because there's no telling if I'll ever get to use her beyond the current scenario. I guess, because she can actually do something for the party at this point (i.e. give Weaponry/Repairs), I'd give her a 4.
I'll have a more accurate rating of this section once the story progresses.

The clarity of the game world: 2
We never really got a clear description of our surroundings. The details of the castle interior were... Alright. I guess. But many things still had to be built off of without @Thin's advance notice, such as Tifa's in-depth inspection of the castle interior here. This is sleightly problematic, because Tifa is an "analytical character" at this point; this means that the vast majority of her dialogue is rooted to her surroundings, and her take on said surroundings. If I don't have any surroundings in-detail to go off of... Then I have to make things up as I go along.

And, just so you're aware, I'm not exactly fond of making things up as I go along.

It's not because I don't like writing up environments... But rather, it's because I feel that if I make something up that just simply isn't there, I won't be able to respond quick enough to redact the information (because my schedule limits my posting times). Because of this, I must give a 2.

The other player characters: 3(?)
I can't accurately give my feelings on so many players, so I'll just put it this way: A lot of things going on at different times sometimes makes little to no chronological sense. I understand that getting your characters back in time to hear certain information is nice, but it is often unrealistic. Sometimes, I find myself wondering how characters can go to certain locations, do something one would think was time consuming, and then come back to a different area within a supposed span of less than a minute.
That is, in the end, a problem with time-keeping and dialogue-analysis of course... But it's a problem regardless.

Also, I don't have a tremendous amount of information regarding each individual writer's dialogue at this time to give an accurate reading (i.e. When the story progresses, I'll be able to give a more accurate rating for this category).

Myself: ???
See: "'My' importance to the story" -- Lines 1-2
For myself as a writer...
I have no idea. My character (Tifa) depends on details, which are not present. And when I'm allowed to make my own details, things go at a snail's pace. I won't be changing that pace, because I love details, but I realize that it may come as a thorn in people's sides at points.
Still, rating myself at this time is difficult, because I simply haven't been able to write anything beyond unimportant-details at this time. No real nitty-gritty-storyline stuff.
I may have an easier time rating this section as the story progresses, but that is not entirely guaranteed.

---

@Midnight
I agree with Noel's comment, gender really doesn't matter. Make all the girls you want, just so long as you don't make too many Mary Sues and/or drag sexist stereotypes onto the characters -- those're just basic character-creation rules to go by. I usually make OC's in turn: One Male, one Female, One Other/Repeat cycle -- with an "other" being either something not completely humanoid... Like a Dog, or something.